Showercam victims’ premonition

Linda Bock TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Published Friday October 12, 2012 at 6:00 am

James E. Hill

Michelle “Shelli” L. Stoddard and Christine A. Safstrom had creepy, uneasy feelings that their landlord had been spying on them in the Upton duplex they moved into just a month ago with their children.

Their landlord, James E. Hill, 42, of 76A Hill St., Upton, who allegedly spied on his tenants through a tiny camera in a bathroom vent, was arraigned in Milford District Court yesterday.

Mr. Hill was charged with photographing an unsuspecting nude person, breaking and entering for a misdemeanor and being a disorderly person. A plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf after his arraignment in front of Judge Robert B. Calagione in Milford District Court yesterday.

Mr. Hill, who was in court with a family member, wore blue jeans, a brown sweater over a blue-collared shirt. He was represented by Worcester lawyer Steven D. Power.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Karlin requested that as part of the conditions for Mr. Hill’s release that he be ordered to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet.

“Their right to privacy has been destroyed,” Ms. Karlin said.

Mr. Power argued against electronic monitoring for his client because he said Mr. Hill had fully cooperated with police and had turned himself in Wednesday. He said he had no prior criminal history.

The judge ordered Mr. Hill to abide by a harassment prevention order and the same conditions of his bail release Wednesday, to stay away from the victims and to have no contact with the victims, and he may not use electronic equipment other than a cellphone or employment-related electronics.

He was placed on paid leave Wednesday from his job as a computer technician with the Information Services Department at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Judge Calagione further ordered that Mr. Hill live with his parents in Marshfield until the matters are resolved.

At a 15-minute hearing on Wednesday, Judge Calagione ordered Mr. Hill to turn in his keys to the apartment and stay away from it and from the Meltzer Eye Care Center, 33 Lincoln St., Worcester, where the women work, until 4 p.m. Oct. 10, 2013.

“You want this not to be really happening,” Ms. Safstrom said. “I know Jim, I know his family.”

Ms. Stoddard said she credits her Chihuahua Bella for growling at a heating vent in the bathroom floor of her apartment at 76B Main St. in Upton. She said spider plants and toiletries covered the area of the ugly vent, so she might not have ever seen the camera. It was also somewhat of a fluke that Bella was with her, because the dog usually goes outside first and then perches atop the couch. But on this day, the dog followed Ms. Stoddard into the bathroom. The dog’s growl got louder and louder and that’s when Ms. Stoddard went over to take a look.

“That’s when I saw the thing sticking out of the vent,” she said. She said the camera was being maneuvered to angle toward the shower. She said she saw a black tube with a clear lens sticking through the vent. She took a closer look and saw that it was a camera. She grabbed the base of the tube in an effort to retrieve it, and said when she did, she felt it being forcefully pulled back down into the basement.

“If it wasn’t for that dog,” Ms. Stoddard said, she did not know if they would have discovered the camera in the bathroom. To make matters worse, she said, Mr. Hill was starting to recognize their schedules.

Ms. Stoddard, 41, who lives in the apartment with her daughter, Miranda S. Levasseur, 17, and Ms. Safstrom, 41, called Upton police. In the basement, the responding officer saw a black tube, a clear lens and a small camera directly below the vent, and asked the landlord if he knew anything about the camera.

Police with a warrant searched his home Wednesday afternoon, and confiscated a camera, three laptop computers, an Apple G4 server, and several external hard drives. Mr. Hill had initially denied having any knowledge of the camera in the vent and tried to blame a roommate he told police normally lives in the backyard. When pressed for the name of the roommate, Mr. Hill stated, “All right, this has gone on long enough, it was me,” according to court records.

Mr. Hill also told investigators that there was a camera in his living room so he could watch his dog when he wasn’t home. According to court records, Mr. Hill can view a live feed of the camera from any device that has an Internet connection.

Mr. Hill was whisked down to the probation department office after the arraignment. He walked out of the building a short time later with his lawyer and family member, but none of them would comment. He turned up a short time later at the duplex to gather his personal belongings and his dog under the watchful eye of a police officer.

The three female victims were in court for his arraignment yesterday, and they did not immediately go home afterwards. They only moved to Upton a month ago, and are agonizing over where to move now. Each of the two women has a son.

“Our kids love it here,” Ms. Safstrom said, and added that it was hard to uproot the families again.

Besides her job with Meltzer, Ms. Safstrom works at the Danceworks Academy in Upton.

Mr. Hill, who is divorced according to court records, is scheduled to be back in court on Nov. 30.